La Paloma - The Melody of Longing
First Hand Films
•
53m
Directed by Sigrid Faltin • Documentary • 2008 • 52 minutes
"La Paloma" was born in the 1860s as a Cuban Habanera, composed by the Basque Sebastian Iradier. His simple love song took off on a flight around the world and became an immediate hit in Mexico. "La Paloma" brought tears to the eyes of the unfortunate Hapsburg Emperor Maximilian on the Mexican throne, while liberals mocked him in a satirical version. As a marching song La Paloma arrived in Europe and came of age. To her melody children in Auschwitz filed into the gas chambers, whilst Hans Albers’ alcohol driven version was outlawed by the Nazis. In Romania, "La Paloma" consoled those longing for peace, freedom and their loved ones during their deportation to Siberia. In 1961 Elvis Presley performed the tune in the feature film “Blue Hawaii”. Immediately, "La Paloma" conquered the charts and was at the height of her career. Today, it seems, the Grande Dame has become old and dusty. But she is a master of survival. The Mexican singing star Eugenia Leon is breathing new life into "La Paloma" as a powerful protest song against the war in Iraq and the U.S. La Paloma is celebrating a glamourous comeback.
The film will show glimpses of the many facets of "La Paloma" in Spain, Cuba, Mexico, Hawaii, Germany, Romania, Zanzibar. Musicians will tell us their stories and we will portray their living and working conditions, and so the film will also become a hommage to hand-crafted music, which is endangered in these days of MP3 and digitalized sounds: the Habaneras from Cuba, the slack key guitar sound in Hawaii, the Arabian Taraab music in Zanzibar.
We will hear about 25 "La Paloma" versions, but only a few in full length. The variety is surprising, not boring. A song that has spoken for itself for 150 years, doesn’t need our commentary - it deserves our celebration!
Up Next in First Hand Films
-
Leila Khaled: Hijacker
Directed by Lina Makboul • Documentary • 2005 • 58 minutes
What kind of a person hijacks an airplane? The family of Leila Khaled, fled to Lebanon in fear of the armed Jewish group Stern Gang. This paramilitary unit first came to Palestine after WW2 to prepare the territory for those who had surv...
-
A Lion's Trail
Directed by François Verster • Documentary • 2002 • 54 minutes
It will take anyone in the world no more than a few bars to recognize this song: "The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, also sung as "Wimoweh”.
The melody has been covered at least two hundred times by artists as diverse as James Last, Henri Sa...
-
Mona Lisa is Missing
Directed by Joe Medeiros • Documentary • 2013 • 86 minutes
How did an unassuming housepainter from Italy pull off the greatest little known art heist in modern time? Was his motivation more than money?
Writer-director Joe Medeiros traces the path of Vincenzo Peruggia, charged with the 1911 thef...